Statutory interest

Compensation for late payment

If a customer fails to pay an invoice, a supplier may claim compensation for the late payment. There are several types of compensation:

• Default interest or late payment interest, calculated on the unpaid balance of the invoice (invoices)
• Damages

Be careful: make sure your general terms and conditions (T&Cs) expressly provide for this, so that there are no misunderstandings on the matter.

What interest rate may you apply?

Well-drafted general terms and conditions do not state a fixed percentage, but start, for example, from the statutory interest rate increased by (for example) 2%. This way you do not run the risk of the default interest becoming far too low or too high. Too high carries a risk because a court may deem it unreasonable. The court can moderate an excessive interest rate, i.e. lower it, or in case of alleged abuse even limit it to below the statutory level.

The damages are also a percentage of the outstanding balance. It is advisable to set a fixed minimum for this in any case (for example € 100,-).

Statutory interest

Have you not included anything about interest rates in your general terms and conditions? Then the statutory interest rates for the period concerned apply automatically. You may stipulate that a month that has begun counts as a full month.

• If the customer is a consumer (B2C), the statutory interest rate for 2022 is 1.50% per year. In this case, interest starts to accrue from the first formal notice of default.
• If the customer is a company (B2B), an interest rate of 8% per year applies for the first half of 2022.

In tax matters and under public procurement legislation, specific interest rates also apply. For public contracts, the applicable interest rate sometimes depends on when the contract was awarded. You can find an up-to-date and complete overview on the website of the FPS Finance.